Paddington station did not exist, a Helsinki railway station was listed as a park and a place in Ireland called “Airfield” was wrongly marked as an airport.

Barricades also had to be erected at an airport in Alaska after motorists following directions on their iPhone maps started driving across the main runway.

Barricades had to be erected at Fairbanks International Airport, Alaska after the glitch Photo: APPLE

At least two motorists crossed the main runway at Fairbanks International Airport, which is used by 737s and other large aircraft.

It also misspelled the names of certain cities such as Doncaster, which was re-named “Duncaster”.

The roll out of the service was so poor that Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, issued a personal apology.

Richard Williamson, the executive behind the mapping service, also left the company.

According to Comscore, In September 2012, there were 81.1 million users of Google Maps, out of a total 103.6 million Android phone and iPhone users.

But the equivalent data for this September shows that just 43 per cent of iPhone and Android users in the US – 63.6 million – use Google Maps, even though the overall customer base has grown to 147.9 million.